Civil Service actions to disrupt Dáil business

97i9y3941

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0217/1224264629633.html

MARTIN WALL, Industry Correspondent

Wed, Feb 17, 2010

BUSINESS IN the Oireachtas is set to be disrupted in the coming weeks following a decision by staff to intensify their campaign of industrial action in protest at pay cuts in the budget.

At a joint meeting yesterday, members of Impact, the PSEU and the CPSU who work in the Oireachtas agreed to draw up a new co-ordinated campaign of action.

Union leaders also said yesterday that their proposals for public sector reform “could be back on the table if the Government was prepared to negotiate on the basis that the pay cuts can be reversed if equivalent, or larger savings, are made through public service transformation”.

The Government has said that it wants to engage with the unions on public sector reform. However, Ministers have ruled out any reversal of the pay cuts introduced in the budget.

Speaking after the meeting in the Oireachtas, Impact national secretary Louise O’Donnell said the unions would not be giving advance notice of the timing and nature of their additional actions.

“Our members are coming into Oireachtas each day and diligently working for people who have voted to cut their pay twice in the last year.

“Union members at today’s meeting were clear that they wanted to co-ordinate their work-to-rule across the unions to up the ante and cause maximum irritation to the Government rather than the public,” she said.

Informed sources said among the issues for consideration would be a ban on answers to parliamentary questions issuing in the Oireachtas.

Members of some Civil Service unions are already refusing to deal with parliamentary questions in Government departments, although some answers are being prepared by management.

Meanwhile yesterday morning civil servants refused to open public counters in a number of Government departments such as Foreign Affairs, Education, Communications and Environment as well as in the Office of Public Works as part of the campaign of industrial action.

Unions also put in place a ban on answering phones in some departments yesterday afternoon.

Public service unions have deferred any major escalation of their campaign of industrial action for four weeks to allow the Government to decide on whether to engage with them.

Union leaders want the Government to engage with them in relation to the pay cuts, public sector pay policy overall as well as on pensions and job security.

In a statement yesterday, the unions said they rejected the Government’s view that there was “no alternative” to the pay cuts, and said they had “put forward an alternative approach last year, which would have delivered the payroll savings required by the Government in 2010 while ensuring that vital services were protected and enhanced as expenditure and staff numbers continued to fall in future years”.

© 2010 The Irish Times

banana republic..

jimmycrackcorm

banana unions - how can they not realise we need both the pay cuts and the reform.....?

KlausFlouride

With that backdrop, please consider Central Falls to fire every high school teacher.
The teachers didn’t blink.

Under threat of losing their jobs if they didn’t go along with extra work for not a lot of extra pay, the Central Falls Teachers’ Union refused Friday morning to accept a reform plan for one of the worst-performing high schools in the state.

The superintendent didn’t blink either.

After learning of the union’s position, School Supt. Frances Gallo notified the state that she was switching to an alternative she was hoping to avoid: firing the entire staff at Central Falls High School. In total, about 100 teachers, administrators and assistants will lose their jobs.

Gallo blamed the union’s “callous disregard” for the situation, saying union leaders “knew full well what would happen” if they rejected the six conditions Gallo said were crucial to improving the school. The conditions are adding 25 minutes to the school day, providing tutoring on a rotating schedule before and after school, eating lunch with students once a week, submitting to more rigorous evaluations, attending weekly after-school planning sessions with other teachers and participating in two weeks of training in the summer.

gandalf

Really at this stage if the Public Servants are not carrying out their duties they therefore are guilty of gross misconduct and should have their employment terminated. There are scores of people out there who would jump at the opportunity to take their jobs and whats more these people are not tainted by the standisation of the worst that the unions bring to the table.

Time to take the pain now and face the unions down, start firing people who refuse to do their jobs.

Sleepy

I think there's two means of dealing with these layabouts at this stage: sack them or shoot them.

ednwireland

surely not opening public counters not answering the phones etc is part of your normal working practice, therfore by extending a work to rule to include this you have basically crossed the line to unofficial strike action and therefore suspended with immediate effect without pay until you are prepared to do your job ?

seeems to me the public sector are trying to strike and get paid this should be stamped on immediatley (and my OH is a part time lecturer)

or am i missing something here

97i9y3941

well i know in the private sector you would been suspended now or even fired for this sort of carry on.

Liam Byrne

deadtiger wrote: »

Really at this stage if the Public Servants are not carrying out their duties they therefore are guilty of gross misconduct and should have their employment terminated.

And that includes most of the Dail itself.

Annasopra

I'm unemployed and always worked in the private sector but completely agree with the unions on this. They are defending their members and they are entitled to do so

Sleepy

Unions are entitled to perform work to rules or official strikes. Not to refuse to do their jobs and call it a 'work to rule'.

Rookster

Just wait until there are more pay cuts this december as well. They are unavoidable as the country is broke.

97i9y3941

Rookster wrote: »

Just wait until there are more pay cuts this december as well. They are unavoidable as the country is broke.

expect the "pay freeze" scenario..

eigrod

Rookster wrote: »

Just wait until there are more pay cuts this december as well. They are unavoidable as the country is broke.

Come next December we'll be 2+ years into this mess. Surely this Government should be starting to come up with something a bit more creative by that stage as regards improving the economic mess rather than resorting to the 'no brainer' of further cutbacks in Welfare payments and Public Sector pay. Or maybe we're happy to continue to keep them in Government and on generous salaries just to keep coming up with the same old ideas.

BroomBurner

Most PS members have accepted the paycuts, but it's very difficult to swallow when those at the top only received a 3% cut.

Still, at least with aiming the obstructions at the government, and not the public, it will hurt where it's meant to hurt.

As for being suspended for not doing your job, their is noone not doing their job, please learn what a work-to-rule is.

Thoie

BroomBurner wrote: »

As for being suspended for not doing your job, their is noone not doing their job, please learn what a work-to-rule is.

So none of the people who normally answer the phone have anything along the lines of "deal with public queries" in their job description? That's OK then.

Sleepy

To be honest, given the overall ineptitude would it surprise you if they didn't?

Flex

Sleepy wrote: »

To be honest, given the overall ineptitude would it surprise you if they didn't?

Not really, no. "Im not using the phone or unlocking doors or holding keys anymore because it doesnt explicitly state I have to do that anywhere in my contract". Does it explicitly state they're supposed to breath while at work? If it doesnt then does that mean they'll stop breathing while at the office? Stop taking smoking breaks? Stop having tea during the day?

If I or the other people in my office initiated a work to rule approach it would result in about 10-15 hours less upaid overtime being done every week, no more reports or work for other departments in the company, since my contract only requires me to work 35 hours a week and explicitly states the department I work in, etc. Forget silly threats about not answering the phone.

But yea, hopefully this will work and we can force the government to allow the unions to dictate economic policy. Then we can raise taxes and keep borrowing, because raising taxes/borrowing to finance short term debt always works out great in recessions/depressions. It worked great for us in the 1980's and sure its working great for Greece right now too!

miju

Thoie wrote: »

So none of the people who normally answer the phone have anything along the lines of "deal with public queries" in their job description? That's OK then.

actually no it doesnt :p:p:p:p:p